Four finalists of the international competition for the landscape and architectural concept of the Olonkho Land complex with the Olonkho International Center and the Olonkho Theater in Yakutsk were named in September.
Olonkho (accent on the last syllable) is a Yakut epic of the 19th century, recognized by UNESCO as a masterpiece of oral and non-material creativity. The Olonkho Land complex is planned to be built on an area of about 47 hectares, on the shore of Lake Saisary, sacred for the Yakut people, almost in the center of the city. Until the nineties, the main holiday of the Yakut people Ysyakh took place at this place, now it is a flooded wasteland, almost in the center of the city. According to the organizers, the complex should include the Olonkho International Center with theaters, museums, research institutes, restaurants, a planetarium, as well as a theme park dedicated to the Olonkho epic and related cult rituals, experimental housing, an innovative technopark - separate parts of the complex will be designed with separate contests, one of them, for the IT-park, has already taken place. Within walking distance from the future complex are the North-Eastern Federal University named after M. K. Ammosov and the Yakutsk State Agricultural Academy.
The competition is held by the Design Company of the Olonkho Land Complex (PKZO) with the support of the International Association of Unions of Architects (CIS), the Union of Architects of Russia, the Union of Architects of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Union of Architects of Yakutia. The goal of the project is “to create within the urban area a cluster with a creative economy on the cultural basis of the world masterpiece Olonkho”. It is planned to select a winner from four finalists before November this year. *** Finalists of the competition
Vittorio Grazzi + Yakutagropromproject
The street, equipped with covered pedestrian galleries, runs through the entire territory of the complex. Along it, after the residential high-rise buildings-towers, in the direction of the cape, the volumes gradually increase. The height of the buildings of the Olonkho International Center located on the very promontory reaches sixty meters. All of them have an irregular shape and stand, as if tilted from the wind blowing from the peninsula, and besides, they resemble diamond crystals and Lena Pillars. In the plan, all the buildings of the ILC are inscribed in an equilateral triangle, their windows have the same shape, and the egg-shaped shape of the main theater hall is similar at the same time to the yurt and the sacred mountain of Mogol-Uras, inscribed in the massif of the building.
ARUP and Partners
In this project, the peninsula is divided into three zones, in the image of the mythical land of Olonkho - from south to north: upper, middle and lower worlds. For the size of the quarter, the average width of the quarter for Yakutsk is taken - 150 meters. The abundance of covered pedestrian galleries, pavilions and winter gardens is designed for the Yakut winter, which lasts nine months. In summer, the priority is given to the embankments. The buildings are designed mainly in the form of quarters with irregular quadrangles in the plan. The large dome of the main theater in the form of Mount Mogol-Uras is covered with a glass cube.
In residential buildings, the main part of the premises is oriented outward - only kitchens, bathrooms, offices, hallways go into the interior. In gallery-style houses, one gallery provides access to three residential floors.
*** Northern oasis
The entire peninsula, the entire territory of the complex is occupied by a giant multi-level building "Olonkho Valley". The lower levels contain technical rooms and parking lots. The entire complex is surrounded by multifunctional premises around the perimeter, among which residential, "terrace-atrium apartments" prevail. Kindergartens are located on the first floors on the east and south sides. The indoor botanical garden is adjoined by a water park, a recreational area and offices, whose balconies face towards recreation. The green roof is operated; it has overhead lights for illumination. In the center of the complex there is a tree-like office and hotel building 125 meters high - this height allows it to work as an exhaust hood, and the branched "crown" is proposed to be used as a heat exchanger that releases excess heat from refrigeration machines into the atmosphere. The author, Sergei Nepomniachtchi, defines the proposed closed version of the park as an “urban development revolution” and “the first example of urban space climate control”.
Fuksas + Sakhaproekt
The compositional solution is based on the circling of the galaxy and the solar system. Her "sun" and heart is the Olonkho International Center. The three worlds of the Olonkho country are allegorically displayed in the project of the IOC building: in the “lower world”, under the main square, the Museum of Ice and Permafrost is set up; the role of the "middle world" is played by the main square for theatrical performances and cultural events; The "upper world" is a covering of floating petals over the central space. The development of the theme of the Olonkho worlds is continued by other buildings of the complex. Outwardly, the project is somewhat reminiscent of the Tsiolkovsky Museum in Kaluga.
*** Other contestants
Rubio and Alvarez Sala (R&S)
Four roundabout squares are connected by roads. One of these squares - a round square with a World Tree - is located in the middle of the complex. Around it are the Olonkho International Center, a business center, a residential area and an IT park. The volumes of the ICO are made in the form of diamonds, and its metal roof should change its shade depending on the sunlight. In the northern, triangular, part of the peninsula, a quarter of a cinema is inscribed, and on the cape there is a ritual and ethnographic object in the form of a "hut" - 16 meters high. Olonkho Park is located in the southern part of the complex - a combination of “glades” of different heights integrated into the landscape, connected by bicycle and pedestrian paths. It is proposed to deepen the Teploe Canal in order to unite it into one whole with the Saisary Lake. It is also envisaged to build new bridges connecting the Olonkho Land with other areas of the city. ***
Eldana
In the center of the territory there is a huge "Square for circular dances", which occupies 4.5 hectares. According to the authors of the project, their concept is based on the results of consultations with shamans. Lake Saisary is considered by them as the most sacred place, therefore in its center is the "Golden Sun" - a large yellow semicircle, oriented strictly to the cardinal points, in the center of which there is a model of the World Tree. The triangular promontory leading to the disc building is given over to meditation centers.
Atrium and partners
The architects built the landscape of the complex on circles and flexible “meanders”, symbolizing the winding Siberian rivers and alaasy lakes-glades, which are formed from the thawing of the permafrost in the taiga. It is proposed to dig a new winding canal on the territory, which will help to drain it, and the authors suggest using the excavated soil to create hills and revitalize flat terrain. The modern plastic of the buildings of the Olonkho International Center is based on the prototype of a group of glasses for drinking kumis, chorons, which during the Ysyakh holiday are put together on a common site (the ritual of drinking kumis together is called kumis tusulge). The relatively narrow legs of the volumes, strongly expanding upward, protect the permafrost soil from thawing. The world tree in the project of the Atrium team looks like a high cylindrical media screen, on which any images can be projected, with an observation deck at the top. We talk in more detail about this project in a separate article, its merit, in our opinion, is in the close intertwining of flexible and complex modern plastics and symbolism, which gives meaning to the form, but successfully avoids naive archaism.
Sanar and Adhesion
A hexagonal "honeycomb" is taken as one of the types of the plan of the traditional Yakut dwelling. Urasa and Mogol-urasa became the prototypes of the domes of the Olonkho International Center, and the volume of the Elley multifunctional residential complex imitates the shape of the Lena Pillars.
Northern Lights
The project proposes to expand the boundaries of the allotted territory so that the Olonkho Land plan becomes round. So it looks a little like an ancient observatory, or, for example, Stonehenge. In the center of the complex is the Olonkho International Center in the form of a mogul-urasa and with a plan in the form of an egg - a "world egg" in which life is born. The building is the compositional center of the Alaas meadow valley formed by twenty-five-storey skyscrapers arranged in a circle.
